Pawar Sr digs in as Maha drama plays out in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The stage for a bruising battle for control of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) shifted from Mumbai to Delhi on Thursday as a combative Sharad Pawar flexed his organisational muscle at a meeting of party office bearers in the Capital, hitting back at his nephew Ajit Pawar for joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and asking the senior leader to retire

- Saubhadra Chatterji

Battling a split in the NCP, where a majority of the legislators in Maharashtra appear to be backing deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, the senior Pawar held a show of strength of the party's organisational wing. The meeting of the working committee was attended by 22 of the party's 27 state chiefs, with the other five sending letters of support. The committee passed eight resolutions, reposing the faith of all 27 state units in Sharad Pawar, and stamping their approval of the expulsion of the rebels.

"I am still effective whether I am 82 or 92... I am still the NCP president. We will rebuild the party," he said in an apparent response to his nephew saying on Wednesday that the senior leader enjoyed a long political career and should consider retirement.

The former Union minister added that he will go to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and expressed confidence that the party name and symbol were with him. "We trust ECI. We will go to ECI. We will think of appropriate legal measures if needed, but I think it would not be required now," he added.

In the next few days, the Pawar-led NCP leadership will write to EC to retain the party symbol and name, a person familiar with the matter said.